"Oh my. Could it be you?"
Nirva grinned at Franz.
It was a surprise attack from a person he hadn't even considered, but he wasn't flustered.
Franz's decisive surprise attack was blocked because Nirva raised his arm.
"That's unfortunate. You were probably aiming for my heart."
The dagger that Franz had thrust at the opportunity was lodged in Nirva's forearm but Franz's expression didn't change at all.
Rather, it was the Dream Walkers who recognized Franz who were surprised.
"Franz?"
"Why are you here!"
Sedina was surprised for a different reason.'That person is...!'
As someone who had belonged to the Black Dawn Association, she knew fragments about Franz.
Below Zero Order existed First Order, but they weren't Zero Order's closest confidants.
Zero Order had just two close aides who often accompanied him.
One of them was the handsome blond man, Franz.
Sedina had only heard about his appearance before, and this was the first time she learned that his name was Franz and that he was a Dream Walker.
"I've heard about him."
Julia also had some information about Franz.
"The Master had an adopted son. He was so talented that he overflowed with potential to become the next Master of the Dream School after the Master."
"There was such a person?"
"But I heard he had a falling out with the Master due to some incident and left the Dream School. Why is he here...?"
There were many strange points.
How could someone who had left the school enter the deep layer?
And it had been quite a long time since Master Clara Cowen had adopted Franz.
Even if Franz had been a young boy then, by the passage of time, his age should have already exceeded his 40s.
'But that appearance...'
Franz's face looked like he was in his late teens, just barely an adult.
He appeared so young that one could believe he was the same age as Julia herself.
His appearance was too abnormal to be explained by simply having a youthful face.
Clara also looked at Franz with a complicated expression.
It would be a lie to say she wasn't happy to see his face before her death but Clara hadn't wanted Franz to come here.
She had even made a deal with Rudger for that reason.
"In the end, you came."
"..."
Franz didn't respond to Clara's words.
It wasn't that he didn't recognize her because she had become younger. Rather, Clara's current appearance was more clearly imprinted on Franz.
That wasn't the important thing right now.
The attack he had launched, thinking it was a good surprise, had been blocked.
Nirva knew this too and showed full composure.
"To think that little kid would grow up like this. Do you remember? Of course you do. How could I forget the youngster who suddenly fell into the deep layer?"
"Yes. Same here. Thanks to someone, I have an unforgettable nightmare."
Franz's voice was level, but he couldn't hide the hatred within it.
Hearing the intense emotion, Nirva let out a slight laugh.
"Are you still regretting that your adoptive father died because of you?"
"I do regret it. But he didn't die because of me. You killed him."
"If we trace the cause, wasn't it your fault?"
Franz couldn't properly refute Nirva's smiling words.
"What?"
Zantman, who heard their conversation, doubted his ears.
"That day, there was another reason why Brother Nathanael went mad?"
Zantman was the oldest Dream Walker in the Dream School.
Of course, he knew about Nathanael, who had fallen into the deep layer and died after going mad.
"Oh my. Could it be that you didn't tell anyone about the mistake you made that day?"
Nirva wasn't asking out of ignorance.
The moment Franz appeared and Zantman showed that reaction, Nirva had gathered all the information about what had happened between them.
Yet he asked like this deliberately, knowing full well, to mock the human before him.
"Wasn't it entirely because of you that your father, your adoptive father Nathanael, went mad?"
-Hahahahaha.
The Dream Walkers were speechless at Nirva's truth mixed with mockery.
Nathanael, the current Dream School Master Clara Cowen's lover and one of the most outstanding Dream Walkers.
They knew about his reputation from rumors they had heard.
Even for Dream Walkers who hadn't met him directly, Nathanael was a Dream Walker with a great reputation.
The incident where he fell into the deep layer of the Dream Land at a young age and went mad had caused many to lament.
It was widely believed that he had gone to the deep layer out of adventurousness and curiosity but the truth wasn't that.
"You possessed talent that surpassed anyone as a Dream Walker. So with your arrogance and youthful mindset, you wanted to go to the deep layer. Your father and mother opposed it, but you didn't listen. That foolish youngster wanted to prove something."
Among Dream Walkers, going to the deep layer of the Dream Land was considered so dangerous that it was almost taboo.
How many Dream Walkers had died trying to descend to the middle layer of the Dream Land?
The fact that all of them were intact now was thanks to the bloody sacrifices of the previous generations of Dream Walkers.
But the deep layer was too dangerous.
Incomparably more dangerous than the middle layer.
No one tried to go there.
Even Nathanael, who was the strongest Dream Walker at the time, had solemnly warned against it.
He had said that even with his power, he dared not set foot in the deep layer but Franz was different.
Franz was a talent designated as the next Dream Master.
What about his two adoptive parents?
Nathanael and Clara Cowen were exceptional Dream Walkers that were hard to find even when looking through history.
Franz, who was directly taught by these two, was undoubtedly going to be the next Dream Master and the greatest Dream Master in history.
If only he hadn't made that one mistake.
"It's truly sad. If only you had been satisfied with reality and lived, you would have had a more peaceful life than anyone. You would have become a Master at a young age, received your parents' love, and left your footprints in history as a great magician."
It wasn't that he had a distant relationship with his adoptive parents.
Nathanael and Clara had carefully embraced Franz with love, as if he were their real child.
Franz also worked hard to live up to their expectations and love.
They were outstanding teachers and disciples to each other.
And a loving family.
That peace was shattered when Franz headed for the deep layer of the Dream Land.
Franz, overestimating his abilities, went deeper into the Dream Land and, forgetting Nathanael's warning, headed for the deep layer.
Just falling into the deep layer was dangerous enough but the trial that befell Franz didn't end there.
Nirva, who had been sleeping and waiting in the depths of the Dream Land's deep layer at that time, briefly woke up.
Nirva wasn't pleased that a lowly human dared to invade the goddess' territory, even if it was just a youngster.
No one spares a bug that crawls into their home just because it's small.
Rather, they stamp on it more cruelly to kill it.
Young Franz was so intimidated by Nirva's aura that he couldn't do anything.
It was Nathanael who appeared to save Franz.
Franz still remembers the warm, sturdy embrace from behind that hugged him warmly just before a nightmarish monster was about to devour him.
Even now, when he closed his eyes, the memory of that day vividly came back.
His foolish and stupid self.
The desperate moment when he had given up everything.
And the miraculous helping hand.
"Ah, Nathanael. A pitiful human. He sacrificed his life to save his adopted child. At such a young age."
The Dream Walkers looked at Clara with questioning eyes, as if asking if this was true.
Clara nodded with a solemn face.
She understood their reluctance to believe the words of Nirva the demon.
But at least what he was saying now was the truth.
"I must commend you for not letting your vengeful heart erode over all these years. But with your trump card attack being so easily blocked, it seems your years of honing your hatred were in vain."
"Was it really blocked?"
Despite the failure of his decisive attack, Franz's expression remained unchanged.
"Hmm?"
Nirva felt a strange unease at this.
It wasn't that Franz was managing his expression to hide his dismay, but rather that he had expected it to turn out this way.
Nirva quickly realized why Franz showed such a reaction.
-Throb!
Pain was felt from the forearm where Franz's dagger was lodged.
Nirva frowned at the pain, which felt like being seared with electricity.
This wasn't the ordinary pain of being stabbed by a dagger.
This sensation was fundamentally different from normal pain.
The pain centered around the dagger began to gradually spread throughout the entire arm.
"...!"
Nirva hurriedly released his energy.
Franz was blown away by it but landed lightly on the sand as Nirva examined his forearm.
He had pulled out the dagger, but the wound wasn't healing.
Instead, the forearm began to crack like broken glass around the wound.
"You! What have you done!"
Golden sand trickled through the cracks of the broken fracture.
Nirva gritted his teeth and tried to regenerate the wound, but it wasn't easy.
-Crack. Crack.
Rather, the wound spread like a spider web, moving past his elbow to his shoulder.
-Riiip!
A desperate Nirva tore off his right arm from the shoulder.
He was too desperate to think of cutting it off cleanly.
The pain of tearing off the entire arm was indescribable, but Nirva didn't hesitate.
If he hadn't cut off the arm, the crack would have spread to his heart and head.
When he threw away the torn arm, it shattered like porcelain and turned to powder.
Golden blood flowed profusely from the roughly severed shoulder.
Nirva covered the wound with sand to stop the bleeding.
Even during this process, Nirva's eyes never left Franz.
"How...?"
"You said it yourself. It’s a hatred that's been tempered for a very long time."
Franz picked up the dagger that was half-buried in the sand.
It was a dagger with a slightly crescent-shaped tip and a pale green handle that gave off a peculiar aura.
"You have no idea how many years it took to make this one."
"...So the dagger Surna mentioned meant that."
Nirva belatedly realized he had made a mistake.
The bold statement Zero Order had made towards him wasn't just a metaphor.
Nirva let out a self-deprecating laugh.
"I thought you had become cunning in the time we hadn't seen each other, but you've learned to use your head more than I thought."
All that talk about daggers and declarations of war to stimulate this side's vigilance was just psychological warfare.
Knowing that this side wouldn't take those words lightly, he deliberately leaked information.
Surna had not only become cunning, but also knew how to reverse engineer this side's intentions.
'By reversing the vigilance to distract from the simple truth.'
Due to overthinking, he had taken a roundabout route rather than the easy path but Nirva also had reasons to feel aggrieved.
Then what about Rudger Chelici?
He had thought it was the dagger prepared by Surna, but it was just a purely nastily strong natural disaster?
'No. Perhaps Surna hinted at this deliberately with that in mind.'
He had created multiple layers of smoke screens to hide what was truly dangerous.
And now, Nirva had to pay the price for that complacency.
"A lapse in judgment."
He thought he had acted boldly, but realizing that Surna had known that too left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"But you should have killed me here."
One arm had fallen off and regeneration was impossible. Moreover, a considerable amount of his recently recovered power had been consumed from forcibly carving out his body.
Even so he was still alive.
"That was your last chance, youngster."
You should have killed me when you could.
You should have seized the opportunity when it clearly arose.
Your complacency is what will kill you now.
Seeing the formidable killing intent rising from Nirva, Franz grinned.
"You're laughing?"
"You seem to be misunderstanding something. Did you think I came here alone?"
Before Nirva could react, a torrent of attacks surged.
-Boom!
A harpoon that flew from afar shattered his back and stuck into the ground.
It was a whaling harpoon that might be used to hunt whales.
It was so large that Nirva's body was fixed to the floor with the handle.
Nirva tried to pull out the harpoon with his one remaining left arm, but it wouldn't budge.
By now, his arm had been severed and dropped to the floor.
"What is this...?"
His voice, trying to speak, was directed downwards as the head that was speaking had already been severed while five masked men and women slowly descended from the sky riding the wind.